When clients want to negotiate

A good article on the price negotiation issue. This isn't new stuff for old hands, but a good tip-off point for discussion.

http://www.thephotolif​e.org …lients-want-to-negotiate/

A couple of things I'd emphasize:

1. Really knowing your costs and the bases for your prices. If you've just arbitrarily assigned prices, you're weak going into any negotiation. You have to know what your floor really is. When you know that giving up another 10% actually means you're eating tomato soup by Thursday, it's easier to hold firm in negotiations.

2. Being reado to offer a bonus rather than a discount. I have several items that are low cost to me but good as bonuses. These are never offered on my pricelist, but are good to throw into a negotiation: "Rather than a 10% discount, how about if I add this to the regular price? It's not a regular product--I offer it only to special customers."

link doesn't work for me

Works for me when I click on it in the post.

works now. And yes, very sound business advice! this should be applied across the board to anyone who works in a business environment with sales. I don't directly do sales at my day job, but know all about the margins and comparable services swap that are discussed in the article.

What do I do when clients want to negotiate? Nothing really. They can either book me and pay my price or they can go somewhere else.

Numenorean wrote in post #14778976
What do I do when clients want to negotiate? Nothing really. They can either book me and pay my price or they can go somewhere else.

This depends on your market. Truthfully, unless you cater to extremely affluent people only (which is ok if you do, but not everyone does), then people are going to want to feel like they got a deal.

MOST IMPORTANT STEP is to raise value in your product, what makes you different than the people they are comparing you with?

If you just offer a DVD with images, you are giving your client an incomplete product. While we do have that package, it is rarely chosen, because during the consultation, we show them everything else we offer.

When we started out and we had nothing, we were selling digital files only. That cuts down on profit margin, as well as likelihood of being referred. (It is proven that clients who pay more, refer you more).

Now during consultations we show a DVD slideshow of images, but we also show them the DVD package we give them, as well as examples of before/after editing techniques, and we are now adding Leather Craftsmen Albums to our lineup.

When you do that, they can JUSTIFY in their head, paying more or the same as the guy down the street who shoots and burns.

I just wish we had a studio to show it all in

Numenorean wrote in post #14778976
They can either book me and pay my price or they can go somewhere else.

Is it really that black and white for you. If someone comes to you and says "I really like your work but the guy down the street will do it for 10% less", are you really not going to consider price matching. Being in business is all about staying competitive and staying in business. If someone is doing this as a sideline they have the luxury of being able to either reduce their price or wait until they find someone that will pay their price. Either decision has no impact on their lifestyle assuming that they already have a full time job elsewhere.

I will give up on a certain amount of revenue to get work assuming that it is worth it. You get alot of the shoppers that do just what I described above and in that case I will ask them for the photographers name and sometimes respond with, "Ill call the other photographer and if he in fact is doing it for that price I will match." Sometimes you have to call them on what they are doing as they don't have any other price. I can't blame people for wanting to pay less, its human nature.

There is always a time and place to negotiate, imo but you have to place limits on yourself so that you aren't working for nothing.

You read the article, right?

Frequently, all it takes is making a change in the package to let the client feel she's gotten something better.